Adjustable-speed mechanism.



W. M cENERNEY.

ADJUSTABLE SPEED MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 28, m3.

1, 17, I Patented May 4, 1915.

WITNESSES INVENTOR ATTORES in the borough of Manhattan, city, county,

wrnmm momma, or New froax, Y.

' ADJUSTABLE-sans]; inncnnlvrsm.

To all whom it may icoacern Be it known that/I, WILLIAM Maldiv an NEI, a citizen of theUnited States, resldmg and State 'of New York, and whose postofiice address is No. Church street, New' York city, have invented certain new and.

useful Improvements in Adjustable- Speed Mechanism; and I ;do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which appertains to make and use the same.

The object-of my invention is to provide a simple, durable and compact form of gear.

mechanism adapted for use wherever varia:

tions in speed are to be effected between a motor or source of power and the mach ne which it .drives.

v have utilized the principle of the differe'n In the carrying out of my invention 1 tial gear and havesecured the variations in 1 s eed by controlling the speed of one of the her being the one which transmits the riven members of a set of differential gears, so that the said member, through itsreactlve effect upon the other driven member of the set will'serve 'to govern the speed of such other driven member, this last driven mempower to the machine.

My invention accordingly resides in the combination with a driving gear and a-.

power transmitting member, of a so-called controlling gear, and an intermediate gear carried by the power-transmitting member,

driven by the driving gear and reactingv against the controlling gear, to thereby form a driving connection between the driving gear and power-transmitting member, to-: gether with means for governing the speed of rotation of the controlling gear, in the form of a governing shaft driven by the controlling gear through angular thrust gearing and a regulatable retarding device acting on the governing shaft. By. varying the braking effect on the so-called governing shaft, the speed of this shaft is controlled,

' and this shaft being positively driven by the controlling gear serves to thereby determine the speed of the controlling gear, which gear by its reactive effect upon the intermediate gear serves to fix the-- speed ofthe powertransmitting member, by which said intermediate gear is carried.

The accompanying drawing illustrates the inventionjin a concrete and preferred em- Specification dfI-etters Patent. I Application filed April 28,1913. Serial it'd- 784,020.

' bodiment, but I would have it understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the true scope of the invention.

In the drawing: Figure 1 is a top plan viewof a-variable speed transmission gear set embodying the invention.

longitudinal sectional viewof the same taken-substantially on the plane of line. 2'2

of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a'transverse sectional view taken'substantially on theplane-of line the numeral 5 design atesa power shaft on v Patented May 4,1915.

Fig. 2 is a T Referring now to the drawing in detail:

which the gears are supported and which in "the present instance constitutes a drive shaft. This power. shaft maybe a motor shaft, line-shaft. or the like, and is here shown'journaled in suitable bearings 6.-

7 designates the drive gear, which, for

driving purposes is made fast upon the j drive shaft bya pin 8, The controlling gear is indicated at 9 and this gear, in the present instance, is freely rotatable on the loose bearing sleeve 10 interposed between the controlllng gear and the shaft 5.

T12 designates J the intermediate gear, or gears, two such'gears being shown, and 13 mdlcates the so-called power-transmitting member which carries the intermediate gear and by which power may be imparted to the machinery, to be driven. This power-transmitting member is here shown in'the form of a pulley, but it is evident that it could be a gear or other driving element. The intermediate gears. arevshown mounted on intesrior radially disposed stub shafts 14-if desired these stub shafts could be the spokes of the. pulley 13 which here constitutes the power-transmitting member.

' To make the gearing as compact aspossible I preferably use bevel gears, as the driving and control gears and mount them on the shaft'facing each other substantially as shown, with theintermediate gears, in the'formof bevel pinions disposed therebetween. The power-transmitting member.

is mounted so that it may rotate independently of both the drive gear and the control gear and a convenient method of supportthis purpose, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3, a hub portion rotatably fitting the sleeve.

ing it is to journal it on the loose sleeve 10 between the two bevel gea'rs,'it having for The operation of the parts thus far described is as follows: he

drive gear 7,

'-memberL The intermediate gears in pushing back against the control gear as an abutment tend to rotate the control gear. backward.- By allowing the control gear tov rotate backward it is ,obvious that the forward travel oftheintermediate gears and of the power-transmitting. member, which they propel, will be'lessened to the extent of such backward travel. By con-- trolling the speed of the reverse rotation of the, control gear I am therefore enabled to secure any desired speed in the powertransmitting member. v 4

I will now describe the means for governing the action of the 'control gear. 16 indicates a so-called speed-governing shaft ournaled in brackets 17 and-disposed at right angles to the drive shaft. This governing shaft is driven by the control gear soithat by regulating its speed thespeed of the control gear may be varied at will. The drive fromthe control gear is efiected by a spiral gear 18 carried by the control gear, which meshes with a spiral gear. 19. fast on the. shaft." Gear 18 is inthe illustration carried by the control gear-by bolt ing its hubtothe hub of the control gear.

' with respect toxthe. gear axes so that rota-' which is. an axially-directed thrust) is-to reduce the force exerted. on the control pisi pedient it becomes-possible .1301 attain ex- 'gears and making use of simple, durable f'desired range of speed variation is ex -tremely large so that the piston speed ofthe pump. becomes-eXcessi-ve,lit is onlynecessary The purpose 'of this angular relation of the drive shaft and the governing shaft and the interposition of what may be termed angula'r thrust gearing, (that is, gears which have engagingtooth surfaces angularly arranged tion of the driven, gear is due to a relatively small circumferentially directed component ofthe driving force, the other component of ton 22 by the reaction ofintermediate gears v 12-011 the controlling gear 9, while at the same time keeping the speed of the control piston within practical limits. By thise'x treme compactness of the variable speed mechanism w1thIa, minimum number. of-

and welletried machine elements. If the to finterpos'espeed-reducing gearing between.. 'fl1.-v 1'6 andthe pump crank.

. The 2 retardation .of ;the. speed-governing maybe accomplished by'any suitable braking deviceragrdf n i the I preferred form of the" said: shaft-andof .the

is accomplished by means ofa 'regulatable air pump driven by said shaft, the pump being shown as consisting of a cylinder 21, and a pistoii 22 in the cylinder, connected by a suitable rod 23 with a crank 2 carried by a crank disk 25 on the end of the shaft. A suitable-control valve 26 connected with the cylinder serves to vary the load exerted by the pump and hence the retarding efi'ect brought to bear upon the speed-governing shaft. By the simple operation of this valve the speed of shaft 16 is regulated and hence the speed of the control gearis governed, the control gear serving in the manner already described to determine the'speed of the power-transmitting member. A thrust collar 27 maybe mounted on the drive shaft for taking up the end thrust ofthe bevel gear 9 and the spiral gear 18.

Thrust collars 28 and 29 may be provided on the shaft 16 to take care of any end play of thatshaft. I

The extreme simplicity and compactness of my invention make it readily adaptable to any kind of machinery where a variable speed is desired and render its use practicable even though the space available is quite limited. If desired the power-transmitting member-may .be used for driving purposes, the so-called drive gear being employed for the transmission of power.- The control gear serves in such a case to govern the speed of 'the member which delivers the power in the same manner as before described.

What I claim is: j

.1. Adjustable speed transmission mechamsm comprising a drive gear to which the power of the primary driving source is applled, a driven element from which power is taken at the adjusted speed, and a controlgear; anintermediate gear carriedbythe driven element, meshing with the drive gear and reacting against the control. gear to form a .diflerentia'l connectionbetweenthedrivegear-andthe drivenelement, a speed governing shaft disposed at an: angle to the axis of the control -'g'ear,.an'gular thrust driving gearmg through which the governing shaft .is driven fromthe control gear, and a retarding device acting on. the speed govern- I ing shaft and controllableto vary the speed which drives said shaft. '1

power of :the

control by i control gear- I Adjustable speed transmission msmicomprising aidrive gear towhich' the:

primary driving source is ap p'1ied'," a-Jdriven element 'from which-the power is taken at the adjusted speedfand a';

gear; an intermediate gear-carried; riven element, meshing with] the:

drive: ames reacting against the-control;

gear to form a differential connection tween the drivegearzand-thedrivenelement, a speedigoViermrigshaft'disposed at an ng fi thrust driving gearing through which the Y iam-ea to the axis of the control gear, angular governing shaft is driven from the control gear, a pump operated by the speed-govern ing shaft, and a valve controlling said pum to thereby control the speed of the spee governing shaft and of the control gear which drives said shaft. 3. Adjustable speed transmission mechanism'comprising a drive gear to which thepower of the primary driving source is 'applied, a driven element from which the power is taken at the adjusted speed, and a control ear; an intermediate gear carried by the riven element, meshing with the driven gear and reacting against the control gear to form a difi'erential connection he tween the drive gear and the driven element, a speed-governing shaft disposed at an angle to the axis of the control'gear, high pitch spiral gearing through which'the governing shaft is driven from the control gear, and

a retarding-device acting on the speed-governing shaft and controllable to vary the speed of the said shagt and of the contro gear which drives sai shaft.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM MCENERNEY.

Witnesses:

H. M. LEWIS,

M. A. BILL. 

